hello everybody

lets

get

started

it was a great week. many successes that are hard to describe and some things that make you very sad inside. ill go ahead and shared a few of them with you.

first of all the investigator i talked about a few weeks ago karmencita. we had a great lesson with her on saturday and the spirit was strong and she comitted to tell her family she wanted to be baptised and she would come to church and she shared her testimony how she knows that its all true..... 

she came to church. after she attended church at catholic. she hadnt talked with her parents about her coming to church and she said she didnt know if she could. and then this morning she texted and said shes decided to started serving in her own church and shes sorry that she cant join.... which makes me think a lot about agency and choices. gods very intelligent and patient with us. i cant begin to understand how he can watch all of us screw things up so bad sometimes and just wait and watch patiently.. this lady knows its true felt it in her heart feels it when she reads the book of mormon and feels it when she comes to church.. but the family pressure is just not something she can handle,. the trial of the faith is hard... it makes you sad to watch people that you know feel the sirit and know the truth to turn away from it. 

next on a brighter note. we had sister maricel pelo come to church for the first time in over 4 years! ive been teaching this family for the whole time ive been here and marical when i first got here would leave the second we came. and then if she was there she wouldnt speak to us. wouldnt even look at us. then somehow one day soething just happened. she started listening. then slowly started reading the book of mormon. and then finally yesterday she came to church. bishop didnt really believe it happened he was very shocked. its a long slow process but wow its rewarding that first week they finally come to church. her and her 3 children only attended sacrament meeting but they said they would be back next week again. ive really learned one truth here. reading in the book of mormon is the most important thing anyone can do in order to stay on the strait and narrow,. thats why nephi and lehi saw in their vision the "rod of iron" and people "holding fast to it". what does this rod of iron represent? the word if god. the scriptures. ive been working with less actives for about 8 months now. and ive seen in every single situation that as soon as they started reading again in the book of mormon... they started to gain the desire to come back to church. i guess thats the blessing of "holding fast to the word of god" it really helps to keep you on the straite and narrow path. 

the next is dan and jorami. dan likes cock fighting and gambeling. thats his big trial now in batteling the natural man and having his desires changed. (mosiah 3 19) man satan does a good job on decieving the world. look at all the things that seem so harmless at first but turn into addictive habbits. hes very good at what he does. 

thing continue to progress here. in about to the 1 year in the field mark. ha. wow. crazy. hope you all are good and enjoying the weather! mahal ko kayong lahat.. elder landeen

kumusta po tatay ( hi did how are you )

this week on newsroom philippines cabagan edition we have an exciting weather forecast of rain. diferent kinds of rain. in the words of forest gump we have big rain little rain big old fat rain, sometimes rain that comes in sideways, sometimes its basically just a mist that your walking into. not rain but litirall like your walking in a big mister . it floods up above our ankles at least 1 time a week. earlier we played volleyball in the rain that was fun. sometimes it is really rediculously hot in the morning and then thats how you know in the after noon it will rain really hard. and sure enough there comes the rain. 

as far as typhoons like whats happening in manila nothing like that has happened since the first of my mission last september. things in manila are very sad the new elder that came in talked about how when they left the airport it was all flooded even just right outside the airport doors. very sad. 

thats the weather report for this week ha. 

the work of the lord is going forward! always and then sometimes seems like its going backwards. sometimes i have like realizations as im walking around here in the philippines. like wow am i really on a mission? and about the book of mormon like what elder holland said. its hard to imagine how someone could really make up a book like that, its too good for a bad man to write it and theres really not an honest man that would do it unless it was true. its weird how sometimes in life your testimony seems to go up and down. but well i guess thats what the whole walking by faith is. 

theres a family here in cabagan thats such a great family temple cealed and everything they just have one thing that they just cant quite get their minds over, they have a little store that they sell all sorts of things at they just wont close it down on sundays. it makes you see what a blessing it is to have the day of rest the lord has given us. this family pays tithing and always helps members when they need it and thats thier justification for keeping it open on sundays but man they are missiong about on such a great blessing it makes me a little bit sad. im glad that i grew up in a house that we learned to keep the sabbath day holy. were not perfect but we did it. so once again thank you for that. 

 these are just some pictures. the big muscle man is gilbert,. he was supposed to be beptised on saturday but he started drinking again so we had to move his date. and the other is romel and my companion elder hawlader. anyways i llove you and talk to you next week keep me updated on the merit news... elder landeen

helloo!
to start off yes heavy rain is a part of life. and its not something i
write about because it is normal ha and i dont htink about it any
more. as far as a baugio (typhoon) cabagan has flooded a few times but
that happens a lot. the baugio must have been farther north than us
here in cabagan. im glad that im not in manila mission they have had
some really bad flooding the past while (the members are saying from
the news) in tagalag kawawa sila ( like poor them they are having a
bad time )

its kinda late i wanna just share with you a little experience before
i go. yesterday at church there was a sister that we found a few weeks
ago karmencita. she is having a hard time with family problems they
are very catholic and they dont want her to come to church here. (she
is in her 30's by the way ) anyways every week she tells us she wont
be coming to church but every week somehow she ends up showing up. and
she always seems confused why. she says there is something that wakes
her up early sunday morning with some excited feeling that she
described as making her legs move and get herself ready to go to the
church. she almost seems upset when she gets there. why she says over
and over, and then finaly yesterday family problems were bad and even
neighbors were giving her a hard time. the members of her church were
texting her telling her they miss her in the choir, and they want her
to come back, and if you think about that that would be hard for
anyone to leave when your a part of something like that. sunday
morning she said i wont be there im going to catholic church and we
believed her this time and then towards the end of sacrament meeting
she arrived looking different. i went out into the fawyer and she
immediately asked me what is it about your church that makes me come
here, she said theres no band, no dancing and guitar ( thats the kind
of "worship" that she is used to and loves) and she said what is it
that you have here that makes me come every week i dont undewrstand.
she really wanted to know what it was. and so i said of course,,,, we
have the spirit and this is the true church, and you know that and
feel it in your heart., and she admitted that thats true, and then
left.
its just another testimony about how christ is the good sheppard and
he is working in the hearts of the children of men. its helping them
to open the door and trust in him is the hard part. feeling the spirit
and knowing isnt enought. they have to act on it.l thats the hard
part. im just greatful to see that ive very feww times here seen the
spirit working on someone this strong and im greatful to be a
witrness. \

anyways out of time love you all talk to you next week elder landeen

This Week

hey im a couplle days late sorry this will be short my companion has been too sick to leave the house the past few days. so thats why i wasnt able to respond on monday and now since its wednesday and havent been able to work for 2 days and my companion is just getting better and not completely well yet were very short on time. ill just share a little bit of my thoughts the past few days. first of all.... thank you mom for taking care of me all the times i have been sick. i never realized how hard that is until now because im always the one that is sick! 2 nights ago up at two helping him stumble to the bathroom to lbm and throw up then rubbing cold water on his head to try and get his fever to go down, then washing all of our clothes for the whole week (garments and all.... :/) by hand and trying to keep him constantly drinking and eating what he could and giving medicine... i had an apifany (i dono how to spell it) i was taking a step into the life of a mother. and i have an announcement to make,.. thank you mothers for all you do but im proud to be a man. ha ha ha ha ha ha. i guess thats where the whole "equal partnership" thing comes into play. 

i read all of elder ballards book mans search for happiness these past few days. man its already changed my perspective on things. if you ever get caught up in life and job and everything think about how little all of it really is and how lucky we are for the knowledge we have. its absolutely amazing all the knowledge we have about god that the rest of the world is lacking. now lets just show what it means to us by living the things that we are learning. ive found something this past few days about myself and most likely most other people that knda bothered me. i worked all of monday cleaning and doing laundry and updating records and cooking food and all these important things that well obviously needed to be done theres no other way around it than just doing it. but when i found myself at the end of the day trying to read the book of mormon and have a real prayer with my heavenly father it was hard for me to do so because i had exhausted all my strength with all the other things i was doing. do you ever find yourself in this category? so busy doing things that you find it too hard to pray (really pray) because your mentally exhausted with the daily tasks of life? i thought about it a lot and i mean im a missionary if i find myself in that trap then doubtless to say many of you have also. it made me think really... what are my priorities? what is most important to me? 

maybe take the time during the day of a messy house and renovation busy work and school papers and homework and friends and dishes and all these important things that need to be done, and try to "seek first the kingdom of god"          

 LUKE 10 38-42  martha or mary? is basically what i mean. i know each one of us pray every day but do we listen after we pray? i know i teach that to people almost every day to pray and then wait and give god the chance to answer but am i applying what im teaching? its a very interesting thought, and well...  i want to do better. 

love you all and take care.                                                                                                              elder landeen

hello everyone good news. imie got baptised ha :) nope her baby didnt have random seizures and infections the night before again. but she is not a baptised and confirmed member of the church of jesus christ of latter day saints.

ive been blessed to see in a short period of time the "bigger picture" of the lord/ and heres the story....

with imie i know i told you a couple weeks ago that she was scheduled to have a baptism and that it didnt happen because of her daughter that she had gotten sick. this placed us and the church in a very had situation! of course when a problem comes especially when we are making correct choices in our lives we first ask ourselves... why is this happening? am i doing something wrong? and so when you are deciding to change religions its very easy to pin point which choice it is that you could be making wrong. imie expressed to us that there were a few nights when she was sleeping in the hospital with her sick daughter ( sleeping in the crib sized bed with her daughter in a room with about 4 other sick children and their parents ) that she asked herself that question. she said she had made the decision at a couple points that she wasnt going to continue and be baptised. ( we definately were doing a lot of praying for her while all this was going on ) but somehow something happened... she chose faith. she was doing a lot of thinking and she remembered the feelings and the things she was taught and made the decision... no i will believe this is just a trial. and eventually she was released  from the hospital and allowed to take her daughter home. we began teaching her again amazed at the faith in jesus christ during such adversity and set a new date for her baptism. it wasnt untl last week we were able to see the real plan that god has for his daughter that had excersised so much faith in him. .  .  .

imies husband works in manila. from what we had known about him he was okay that imie wanted to be baptised but had no plan himself to follow in her footsteps. but for the reason that his daughter got sick.... he came home from manila to see her, while here we were able to share a message with him and her.. families can be together forever,.. and after that lesson he asked the greatest question ever... what do i need to do to be married in the temple so my family can be together forever.. ( rough translation from tagalag ha ha)    imie was beaming her face lit up like a christmas tree and the reality hit me and my companion. if nicole ( her daughter ) hadnt gotten sick then christopher ( her husband ) wouldnt have come home, we wouldnt have taught that lesson, he wouldnt have attended her baptism and confirmation and he wouldnt have asked how he can be taught by the missionaries and go to church while he is working there in manila. there would be no "seed of faith" planted in the hearts of this young couple that will hopefully grown into a forever family. 

ive thought about it a lot and how much time in my life ive spent questioning the things that are happening to me. ive thought about anxiety and why its been such a struggle to me my whole mission. i remember the hospital and probably the thoughts of my parents while i was making the decisions i was. im sure there were a lot of nights questioning to themselves "what did we do wrong"? this is a normal thing for us to think... this was one more testimony to me that god has a plan. hes mindful and knows us and our situations and in the long run all the trials and problems when you look back will be things you thin about and say " man i was an idiot for worrying so much ". i dont know how gods plan works but i believe theres a plan and that somehow thats very incomprehensible he is very involved in every one of our lives and is helping us as long as we have "faith in every footstep" 

im grateful for all of you, and most of all for a loving heavenly father that was willing to see the good in me when all i was showing was bad. im greatful for parents and teachers before and during the mission that were willing to hope and pray that the boy they "once knew" would come back. i'm grateful for bishops and young mens presidents that would keep coming when i was very entertaining and fun to be around and hope they know the efforts didnt go forgotten,  thank you all for all your support and i love each and every one of you. take care and "press forward with a steadfastness in christ with a perfect brightness of hope and a love of god and all men "                                                                                                       another week gone.. elder landeen

This week Allen just wrote short notes to Mike and I so I cut some parts from each of the notes that I thought you might be interested in.  I will be sending a package this Friday, and he did request any handwritten letters from anyone that is interested, so if you will let me know I will come and get them or you could take them to Mom and Dad's and I will pick them up there Thursday night.

 

Paula

 

Here's the pieces of the letter:

 

here they like eating the small fish more than the nig ones. like three and four inch fishes that they dry and cover in salt and fry in dirty oil and are basically just bones.... they love it. and im just confused at why ha ha. anways i realized something. iknow absolutely nothing about your mission. and you are always telling me you have nothing to write about. so i have a proposition. how about you write about your mission. tell me some stories. tell me about some people ( if you even remember anything i know it was a long time ago and your no journal writer ha ha) i dono why but lately i have been thinking about that a lot about yours and moms and kevins and natalies missions i wanna know all about them. so there is a little project for you to work on your story telling skills. that would be very appreciated if you would do that !

 

as for how im doing im doing good., great. anxiety dropped down again. i was able to have a special interview with elder teh the philippines area president. ( cool right ) and i talked to him about it and he gave me a blessing and some good advice about what to do to deal with it. man these general authorities are amazing people arent they, next month we have an apostle coming to visit the mission. thats about the coolest thing ive heard this will be something to remember. have you ever been taught by an apostle before/? if so who was it?

 

my companion is struggling so bad with the food. hes only eaten curry his whole life and he is very..... bold//// at how he said that he is not "accustomed" to philipino food ha. more than once i have hear something like this... someone asks if he likes the food they cooked.. and his reply is if i dont eat i will die thats why i am eating...... HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA H AH AH AH AHAH H AH AHA

 

hes my favorite companion by far/. hes very new at the gospel. its very interesting having to teach him a lesson or a principle and him hearing it for the first time from my mouth and then us teaching that lesson later to philipinos. things like eternal families and baptisms for the dead and all sorts of the basic beliefs that we take for granted are all new to him. ive really learned who the lord calls he qualifies.

 

letters from family like bailey and cole and savanah and rebekah and jada and well everyone if thats possible ha thats the best part of the package.

well hello again.. its been another week and a lot of adventures. a lot of curry and vegitables ( i never even tasted curry in america but man its so good  and apparently you can cook anything using curry seasonings imagine that ) having a companion from bangladesh is a  very mind opening experience to see what life is like in a different country. i remember making all the comparisons of america to the philippines and now im hearing all the differences of bangladesh and the philippines and im glad to say one thing.... im proud to be an american. ha ha ha. anyways things that have been going on. . . . .

ive been studying a lot about how to work with ward and stake leaders. ive noticed ive been working with less actives here for about 3 months now and its been somewhat fruitful but ive come to realize that if i cant find a way to get members involved in this its gonna all be a whole lot of stress and sweat ( plenty of sweat ) for nothing. the whole every new member needs a friend a calling and nourished by the good word of god... even more so to these less actives. ive learned the most common sin of the human race. BUSY. too busy with work or school or projects or other things to take thie time to do the little things. or sometimes the big things. apparently the word has BUSY has a hidden meaning..... B being U under S satans Y yoke    pretty cool huh? all you home teachers that are too busy like i always was come here and see how many people dont come to church and get to feel the blessings of being active that probably would be right now if it werent for the fact that noone showed any interest to come help them, or bless them when they were sick, or clean up after a baguio, or just come share a spiritual message 1 time in a month. too BUSY. im going to put this in the category of things i hope i remember after ive been home from my mission for ten years. maybe when im a busy 50 percent home teachers ill read my own words and slap myself in the face. 

ive preached a few too many sermons to all of you now im stuck here ha ha if i ever fall out of line theres evidence against me.... remember when you wrot home about this and that? and then                   ill repent ha ha.

ive been thinking about my missionary work and what kind of a missionary i am. sometimes well all the time im stressed and anxious cause things arent going the way they were planned to go or other people your relying on arent willing to sacrifice.... and then i started thinking why does in really matter in the long run what everyone always said was true all god wants is your best. if you give that then the results dont really matter all that much. stressing about things about members and leaders that arent doing their job gets me nowhere and then when i look for the good instead of the negative i get the sweet moments like seeing the cabalsa family. mother relief society president father 2nd councilor in the bishopric. last night i was at there house figuring what we were going to do about sister imie in the hospital she needs help getting her insurance and bills all figured out and she cant do it alone because she has to stay with her daughter. sister cabalsa decided that she would take the time out of her BUSY day and go to tuegegarao to help her. then she second guessed and said wait the kids dont have any food for lunch tomorrow and if i dont sell ( her "job" is she has a bicycle with a little side car attatched to it and she peddels around and sells food that she cooks at her house ) anyways she said if i dont sell then wont have any money to give them. then as easy as for most people to say im sorry i wish i could but.... ( and then give the reason even a very valid reason ) she just said well i just need to be willing to sacrifice god will provide. and she left her job this mornng went to tuegegarao and is helping imie right now. man do i have that kind of trust in the lord? 

the mission ha been a struggle for me the whole time i dont write home about everything mostly anxiety is the source of all the problems but to see people willing to show faith in the lord like that and knowing that a few missionaries that gave up a couple years of their lives to go and teach people about jesus christ were instruments in gods hands to help someone like this become the person she is today.... im greatful for the struggles. at least i know somehow someday my efforts will ammount to something as long as the lords on my side. 

im greatful for all of you. i love you. i believe the church is true. theres a lot of bad in the world but there is also a lot of good. im gonna try to find the good. maybe we could all set a goal together.

mahal na mahal ko kayo...... elder landeen